1.1 The success of any organisation depends on the quality of its workforce. To provide the best possible, modern services to the people of Manchester, the City Council needs highly skilled, flexible, and motivated employees.

1.2 We have in place policies and resources for our Recruitment and Selection processes that are modern, efficient and effective and ensure we recruit individuals who demonstrate they are committed to service improvement and our organisational values.

1.3 It is the intention that Recruitment and Selection panels will be offered more flexibility in recruitment processes to enable them to select the most effective recruitment methods for their vacancy.

1.4 This Guide outlines best practice in Recruitment and Selection activity in the City Council and is supported by more detailed ‘How to Guides’ on the following key areas:

  • Key Legal Provisions
  • Job Description and Person Specifications
  • Assessment Methods
  • Redeployment Key Issues
  • Good Advertising
  • Interviews

1.5 This Handbook is written for all City Council staff involved in Recruitment and Selection. Members of the public may view the guide through the Council’s website.

2.1 Recruitment and Selection must:

  • meet the needs of the modernising organisation
  • provide a quality service to job seekers that is fair, transparent and equally accessible
  • attract good recruits from across the community
  • help promote a good image of the City Council as an employer and service provider
  • be consistent and promote the City Council as a single employer
  • support the council’s policies on equal opportunities

3.1 The following core standards apply to all Recruitment and Selection activities across the City Council, to provide a consistent approach to quality recruitment and to reflect the organisation’s values:

  • Core Standard 1
    Through the clarity, fairness and courtesy shown to candidates at each stage of the process, all staff involved in Recruitment and Selection will promote the City Council as an employer of choice, concerned with service excellence and customer care.
  • Core Standard 2
    All recruitment information will be up-to-date, in plain language and accessible.
  • Core Standard 3
    Each opportunity to recruit will be assessed with a view to promoting City Council employment initiatives and for redressing imbalances in the composition of the workforce.
  • Core Standard 4
    All selection decisions will be justifiable and based on the fair and objective assessment of candidates against the skills, attributes, knowledge and experience required for the job.
  • Core Standard 5
    Care will be taken to ensure that each stage of the Recruitment and Selection process is cost effective both in terms of financial outlay and officer time.
  • Core Standard 6
    Recruitment processes will be conducted as swiftly as possible to ensure the minimum amount of time between a job becoming vacant and a new appointment commencing.

4.1 It is vital that the City Council’s Corporate Values are embedded in the workforce and support the drive for excellence in service delivery. These values are to be used in service planning, service monitoring, self-assessment and, very importantly, recruitment. The values and their definitions are:

  • Pride in our City
    We take pride in our City and the contribution we make to its success. We are committed to continuously improving the quality of life in Manchester.
  • Community-focused
    We recognise that a successful city relies on the success of its neighbourhoods and communities. We want to meet the aspirations of all Manchester citizens by empowering communities and embracing their diverse identities.
  • People-focused
    People are at the centre of what we do. We will achieve an excellent standard of customer service by acting with speed, efficiency and respect.
  • Responsive and accountable
    We value the contribution of residents, employees and partners. We will communicate clearly and openly about our decisions and actions and the reasons for them.
  • Valuing our employees
    We value our employees and we will support and encourage their development in working hard to deliver better services.

4.2 How do you build in values?

Values underpin the way we do things. They are not separate items but the basis of service excellence and should be embedded in the main duties of the job - whether the service delivered is for internal or external customers. They inform the key behaviours and performance standards required for successful performance of any job.

Details of how to embed these values into your recruitment process are explored in the supporting How to Guides

5.1 All staff who take part in Recruitment and Selection must have completed the R&S Training Pre course learning (accessible on the intranet) and attended the Council’s R&S training day.

If you do not sit on recruitment panels on a regular basis, the pre learning can be revisited to refresh skills and understanding.

It is recommended for people who have not sat on a panel within an 18th month timeframe, complete the recruitment and selection pre-learning module again.

Think about the job that has become vacant

6.1 Before launching the process to fill any vacant post it should be carefully evaluated to make sure it is still required to meet organisational needs.

This is increasingly important in today’s organisation where all services are subject to review and there is an ongoing drive for continuous improvement. In this very fluid environment, the way jobs are managed and organised is continuously changing. This can include what, why and how jobs are carried out.

Key questions to consider
  • Is the job still needed?
  • Is it fulfilling its purpose?
  • Can the duties be better distributed between existing staff?
  • Does the job design reflect future Service/ Organisational requirements?
  • Are the working hours and working arrangements of a particular post still appropriate?

6.2 If it is decided a new job, or a radical redesign of the current job is needed, then halt any plans to fill the vacancy. Advice on job and organisational design is available from the Corporate Personnel Workforce and Organisation Group.

6.3 The Exit Interview/ Questionnaire

The City Council has a policy that an exit questionnaire be completed by all leavers and where possible an exit interview should take place. Exit records are maintained by Departmental Personnel sections and you should review this documentation before drafting revised job descriptions and person specification to enable you to take account of any issues raised relating to the job role.

Think about the options available to support you in filling the job

7.1 Current City Council policy requires that supernumerary employees or employees requiring medical redeployment should initially be considered for vacant posts that it is intended to fill. Such employees must be able to meet the basic requirements of the vacant post as set out in the Person Specification and satisfy an appointment panel that they could undertake the full duties of the post given appropriate support and training, within a reasonable period of time.

Departmental Personnel sections will be responsible for liaising with relevant officers within Corporate Personnel to establish whether there are any prospective redeployees who should be considered for vacant posts when they arise.

In the event of any dispute over the suitability of redeployees for a vacant post the determination of the Head of Corporate Personnel will be final.

7.2 Options for filling the vacancy

Established Recruitment Schemes

Is the vacancy suitable for filling through any of the City Council’s recruitment schemes aimed, for example, at unemployed residents?

Returning to a previous shortlist

If a similar job in the same work area at the same grade was filled in the last 6 months and there was more than 1 appointable candidate it is permissible to offer the job to the next ranked applicant from that recruitment process.

Reserve Lists

If appointable applicants who have applied for this vacancy in the past have agreed to have their names placed on a reserve list, then you may appoint directly from the list.

Recruitment through Jobcentre Plus

You can access the services offered by Jobcentre Plus, such as New Deal recruitment, or develop your own recruitment approach in partnership with Jobcentre Plus. A dedicated Account Manager will act as your one point of contact with the service, explain the current options or develop a customised approach if preferred and make arrangements for implementation. Contact your Departmental Personnel Officer in the first instance.

Shortlisting through an Employment Regeneration Centre or Jobcentre Plus

Work in partnership with the agency and guarantee interviews to candidates they identify against your shortlisting criteria. Use in conjunction with open advertising unless you opt to fill the vacancy through New Deal only.

Simplified Application Approaches

Managers are particularly encouraged to consider:

Fast Track to Interview

A tried and tested model ideal for recruitment to high turnover or difficult to fill operative jobs, or skilled craft jobs, where there is a constant need to recruit and maximise the numbers coming forward. Interested jobseekers ring a telephone/text number provided in the advertisement and are invited direct to interview where a basic application form is alsocompleted, with help if necessary. Appointment of suitable applicants can quickly follow, subject to any essential pre-employment checks. JobcentrePlus can assist, for example, by operating the telephone response service on your behalf.

The Directed Questions approach
Helpful for jobseekers to basic grade or first point of entry jobs where

  • written skills are required
  • it is necessary to achieve a manageable shortlist

but - inexperienced applicants often struggle to provide information on their applications which helps the panel identify whether they should be shortlisted

Applicants are helped by issuing them with a list of questions designed to find out how they meet the criteria (instead of requiring them to do so on a blank sheet of paper). Contact your Departmental Personnel Office for guidance.

Executive Search

For some jobs, for example Senior Management positions or hard-to-fill professional occupations, it may be decided to contact known, suitable potential candidates to encourage them to apply. It may also be decided to use a reputable consultancy firm to assist in attaining a good shortlist. In all such cases, the job must also be advertised on the open market to attract the widest possible pool of suitable candidates; all candidates are assessed in the same way and the panel makes the selection decisions at each stage. The approval of the Head of Corporate Personnel is necessary in all cases where executive search techniques are used.

Generic Pools/ Open Recruitment Drives/ Job Seeker Databases

With the future development of generic ‘job families’, it may be possible to introduce recruitment processes that seek to identify pools of potential candidates for vacancies that arise on a regular basis (depending on the role, this may be done on a corporate or departmental basis). Similarly databases of potential candidates can be held and accessed as vacancies arise.

Secondments

  • Could the job be used for employee development by opening it up as a secondment or acting-up opportunity?
  • or as a positive action development secondment?
  • Is the post part of a time-limited project/ financed through time-limited funding, with an urgent need to replace the existing employee?
  • If so, an internal secondment may be the most effective method
  • Consult your Departmental Personnel Officer on the use of secondments, including their use for employee development and positive action

Other options

  • Moving an employee from a temporary to a permanent contract
  • Consolidating an employee into the post where she/he has been doing the job on a temporary or acting-up basis for over 12 months and was originally appointed through the Recruitment and Selection process

Who should be on the panel and what is their role?

8.1 Where a recruitment panel is required to progress an appointment to a vacant post, staff involved in the panel need to have:

  • Completed the Recruitment and selection Pre-learning and attended the one R&S training
  • Completed the E-Recruitment Manager training (SAP)
  • A broad understanding of the current legislation relating to recruitment and selection
  • Attended a City Council briefing on Recruitment and Selection and have considered their own development needs to ensure they have the underlying knowledge and competencies to carry out good quality recruitment and selection
  • Knowledge of the City Council’s Corporate Aims and Objectives, current priorities and organisational values
  • Understanding and commitment to the City Council’s Equal Opportunities and Social Inclusion policies
  • Knowledge of the relevant service, its current and future direction

8.2 The Role of the Panel

The Panel’s role is to:

  • Plan the process
  • Review the Job Description
  • Agree the Person Specification
  • Agree the information for applicants
  • Write the advertisement
  • Plan and design the assessment methods, i.e. interview questions, tests, exercises
  • Assess the candidates
  • Select the appointable candidate

8.3 Planning the Process

Good Recruitment and Selection demands good planning and this should be the first task of the panel. The time it takes to fill a vacancy can be significantly reduced by agreeing a timescaled plan right at the start. This will effect the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the process and also enable candidates to organise their own plans accordingly.

8.4 Membership of the Panel

The Chair of the Panel is a responsible person appointed to coordinate the process and ensure it is carried out fairly.

Avoid large panels as they can put candidates off and push up the costs in officer time. The choice and number of panel members should be appropriate to the vacancy and each member should add value to the process. The panel should consist of individuals who have a specific interest in the appointment e.g. The manager, a personnel officer, an individual with specific knowledge and skills in that particular field (or Members in the instance of chief officer appointments).

Panels must have at least 2 members. Where a learner recruiter is involved, for example as part of management development, there needs to be at least 3 panel members. An additional member with technical knowledge may be necessary.

The makeup of the panel should, aim to reflect the community served, and, wherever possible and practicable should include a black person. Observers on panels should not be part of the decision making process.

8.5 Declaring an interest

Panel members must withdraw from the process if a family member or close friend applies, or if their knowledge of the applicant is such that they cannot maintain objectivity.

8.6 Continuity

Wherever possible the same people should serve on the panel throughout the entire process. If a substitute is necessary then they need to become familiar with all the applications and receive a thorough brief on the process so far.

How should the job be described?

9.1 In Recruitment and Selection, the Job Description is a very important marketing tool, read by potential applicants to decide whether "this is the job for me" or "I want to work here". Job Descriptions should be presented in a concise and positive way which reflects the City Council as a modern and forward thinking employer with excellent employment opportunities.

9.2 Panels need to critically review existing Job Descriptions in order to ensure that they are accurate and reflect the job requirements.

Modern City Council Job Descriptions:

  • Are short and succinct, containing clear, crisp statements which encapsulate the main purpose, duties and expected achievements of the job
  • are in plain, jargon free, easily understood language
  • use performance standards and outputs rather than just lists of tasks and duties
  • are kept fresh and properly aligned to service requirements
  • incorporate organisational values and staff development

9.3 The How to Guide – Job Descriptions and Person Specifications provides panels with advice and examples to assist them to produce modern job descriptions that reflect the core values of the organisation.

What are the skills, values and behaviours needed for successful performance in the job?

10.1 The Person Specification is the central tool of the Recruitment and Selection process. Getting this document right is one of the most important roles the Recruitment and Selection panel has to perform. It is the basis for assessment and decision-making at every stage. It sets down the skills, behaviours, and underlying competencies which enable a person to perform that job successfully and in accordance with the organisation’s values. It should also identify where there are essential qualifications for the post.

10.2 Potential applicants can self-assess against the requirements the panel identify and make a judgement whether they should pursue the vacancy further. This decision can be influenced by the quality, tone and clarity of your person specification.

10.3 Panels also need to write the person specification with equal opportunities in mind. No criteria should discriminate on the grounds of race, religious belief, disability, gender, sexual orientation or age unless the criteria is fundamental to the job, clearly justifiable and meets the legal requirements of anti-discrimination law.

10.4 A Good Person Specification: